1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fabrication of dental prosthetics, and more particularly to a tool for recording a dental patient's centric relation for accurate reproduction of the proper relation for the patient's upper and lower teeth in the dental prosthesis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to a wide variety of conditions and situations, a dental patient may lose all of the teeth in his or her maxillary and mandibular arches. In order to replace these missing teeth, a dentist will place implant fixtures in both the maxillary and mandibular arches. In order to fabricate a dental prosthesis for the patient, abutments are attached to those implants, and then crowns are either cemented or screwed to these abutments. In order to properly perform this procedure, it is necessary to record the relation of the mandible to the maxilla.
Generally, in dentistry, the “centric relation” is the mandibular jaw position in which the head of the condyle is situated as far anteriorly and superiorly as it possibly can within the mandibular fossa/glenoid fossa. However, when the patient loses his or her teeth, the centric relation is also lost, thus a way of finding the centric relation is needed in order to achieve the proper relation for the upper and lower teeth to produce good occlusion for the dental prosthesis. In order to find the lost centric relation, it is necessary to use a device that records the exact position of the mandible in relation to the maxilla. Typically, this is performed using an acrylic base material. This acrylic base is fabricated in a laboratory on a cast. Following this, the dentist places this acrylic base over the implant and the mandible is manipulated back to its position. This is followed by using a silicone base registration material. At that that time, the centric relation is recorded back.
The recorded relation may then be sent to the laboratory to begin fabrication of the dental prosthesis in the particular recorded position. This recordation process, however, requires the patient to undergo multiple appointments for the various stages of the procedure, and the process is susceptible to errors and inaccuracies in the centric relation recordation. Thus, a centric relation bite registration tool solving the aforementioned problems is desired.